The setting is an 18th-century Bavarian town with a glassblowing factory that produces a brilliant ruby glass.

The local Baron, who owns the factory, is obsessed with the ruby glass and believes it to have magical properties.

The hypnotized actors give very strange performances, which Herzog intended to suggest the trance-like state of the townspeople in the story.

Other brief shots of landscape scenes were filmed in various locations around the world that Herzog scouted out, including Yellowstone National Park and the Viamala canyon.

Herzog, along with other members of the crew, has a cameo as one of the men carrying a load of ruby glass to the lake.